Year: 2020

Remote work was first thought of as a trend. Today, that has changed substantially — especially during the coronavirus outbreak — and companies are also increasingly transitioning into remote, distributed teams, regardless of whether there’s a crisis or not. In reality, 70 per cent of people globally work remotely at least once a week, as seen in a study by real estate company IWG.

The “remote work revolution” isn’t just creating distributed teams within conventional incumbents, it has also given rise to fully remote companies such as Buffer and Reedsy. Teams live in Slack chatrooms and see each other face-to-face once or twice a year. Work is done in the comforts of their own home or desired workplace.

Remote work sounds sexy, but it’s potentially more demanding. With physical presence, sense, and emotions out of the window, manging remote teams can be tougher. Without proper execution, remote work can be more unproductive than working together physically.

Yahoo is an exemplary example: in 2013, the company forced employees to come back and work at the office, curtailing their previous remote work attempts. In 2017, IBM did the same with a harsher ultimatum: it’s either you return to the office, or you pack and leave for good. Social media photography app Timehop also failed in their remote work experiment.

One of the biggest problems with remote work is the lack of execution, stemming from a lack of good planning. Typically, companies imagine it to be the same as working in the office: the only difference is the travel to the workplace and being physically there at their desk. Instead, that’s replaced by pajamas on a swivel chair.

Also Read: The future of remote work is happening now, here’s how to make it work for you

To make things easier to manage, companies will also impose “core working hours” or “main online hours”, just so they can mimic the previous operating hours in the office. Having ‘everyone’ online at the same time during the day can seemingly make things easier to manage — especially when you communicate to everyone at the same time — but it’s a lazy remote work policy that makes no sense.

Respect the time zone difference

Not all distributed teams work in the same time zone. Unless the time zone difference is similar to how Chicago is 2 hours ahead of Los Angeles, it’s absurd to expect someone living 16 hours ahead to be awake at an ungodly hour. This can be a headache when the team is comprised of people living in different time zones (e.g. Vietnam + Australia + UK + Argentina).

Defeating the purpose of remote work

When you work remotely, you think of freedom — sure, you still have to do work, but unless there’s a video call meeting you can pretty much stay in your PJs the whole day. You can eat at any time you want and get copious amounts of coffee without your co-workers asking if you’re feeling alright over and over again.

By setting “core hours”, it forces everyone to be online at that moment in time, defeating the purpose of remote work that’s supposed to inject freedom into an employee’s daily work cycle.

Creates artificial anxiety

Suppose an employee misses a few core hours. During that time, a team video call was made. Messages were also sent back and forth in the chatroom. One might think that he can easily scroll through the chatroom and search for chat history, but it’s more likely to provide misinformation or inaccurate perspectives.

Over time, if the employee misses more core hours, he will feel anxious and stressed over it, knowing that he has no way to find out whether his colleagues are commenting about his absence behind his back.

Endangers performance evaluation

Does spending more time online means get more work done? That’s a fatally flawed mindset. Managers need to rethink how they evaluate work performance when everyone is working remotely.

Without seeing the employee sitting at his/her desk for hours (even if he/she is scrolling through Facebook), it’s difficult to have any impression of the employee being busy at all.

Managers that dictate working hours even while everyone is working remotely will send the wrong message about how they are evaluating performance.

In other words, it means that having everyone online during a period of time is equivalent to getting all the work done in that period—a quick look at a software company’s Jira will tell you something else.

Instead of setting “core hours” as part of the remote work policy, companies should give employees freedom of choosing when and where to work. The whole point of remote work is to give freedom and stimulate creativity. Hence, a great remote policy should:

• Set clear expectations of work done. Remote work measure by results and progress: how much work is being down and what is being achieved? It’s entirely fine for an employee to work only four hours a day when he is extremely capable in his role.
• Allow disconnection. If it’s urgent, you can call. If not, give it a rest and let employees fully disconnect from the incessant messages and Slack emojis.
• Create a central point of information. Don’t let employees hunt for information whenever they come online. Employees need to be in the know regardless of how long they’ve been offline. To do so, teams can create central points (i.e. wikis) of information, which can include things such as meeting notes, discussion notes, and important chat messages.

Rather than expecting remote work to occur naturally on its own, companies must take it by the hand and ensure employees can remain productive despite being at home.

In a Remote.co article, “poorly executed remote work doesn’t work”, which is potentially happening to many companies during this coronavirus outbreak. One thing’s for sure, as long as companies understand the inherent traits of remote work, they’ll never create policies and protocols that go against it.

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This article first appeared on Human+Business.

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There’s a great scene in HBO’s Silicon Valley that takes place at TechCrunch Disrupt where each founder is pitching their big idea at Demo Day.

We see each founder going up to the stage one by one where they start with “We’re making the world a better place by [insert super technical business proposition].”

One founder says, “We’re making the world a better place… through paxos algorithms for consensus protocols.” The next founder says, “We’re making the world a better place through … canonical data models to communicate between eggs.” One founder at the end finally says, “We’re making the world a better place through … scalable, fault-tolerant, distributed databases, ACID transactions.”

While the scene is a parody, in reality, this is not so far off from the stuff that reporters hear day in and day out with tech founders.

How do I know?

Other than working with reporters across the region daily, I’ve asked tech reporters from various media outlets including The Business Times, KRAsia and The Ken about their experiences interviewing startup founders in Southeast Asia.

Also Read: Using social media to grow your startup: What companies can do to avoid disappointment

Everyone thinks they are special …

Imagine yourself sitting in the shoes of a reporter, listening to a company founder droning on about how he is going to change the world.

“The thing with startups sometimes is that they believe that whatever they’re doing is the most novel thing out there. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it’s not,” said a tech reporter from a first-tier publication in Singapore.

So how do I stand out from the pack? What if I really am special?

Start from a clean slate and rewire yourself. Avoid technical jargon at all times. I have sat through interviews where the founder cannot help themselves from going straight into the nuts and bolts of their data-driven algorithms or proprietary solutions.

“The spokesperson should be able to explain succinctly why their solutions work, what pain point it addresses, and how they stand out from their competitors. Basically, why their news matters,” said another tech reporter.

Who should I speak to? How should I speak? And how should I know what to say?

This is what founders often ask me. So, let’s break it down:

Who should I speak to?

Let’s start with the first step. Do your homework. You have practiced your elevator pitch time and time again for your VC investors. You have by now spent hours absorbing details about the firm’s previous investments, its investment theses, what the partners like and do not like to hear in pitch meetings.

Just like the different VCs you speak to, media outlets come in different sizes, shapes and tastes — even within the tech universe. Within tech, there are reporters who cover a country, such as tech in Indonesia, reporters who cover ride-hailing only (which for the most part is Grab and Gojek), and reporters who cover tech across the region — e.g. The Information or TechCrunch.

Also Read: 3 genuine ways to get media attention for your startup in Southeast Asia

“Before pitching, it is essential to consider whether your news could really become a story on the reporter’s website. For example, at TechCrunch, I didn’t ever write about partner deals or appointments, but yet some people would still pitch these types of news. That showed they don’t read the publication. You’d expect a reporter to know something about your company before they speak to you, so it’s only fair to think you’d research the publication and reporter too,” said Jon Russell of The Ken.

So, do your research and get a sense of both what the publication likes to cover and what the reporter likes to write about. Do not send reporters the same generic email with a sales pitch for your company or product. The media landscape is small in Southeast Asia. It is even smaller for tech (and for the most part, a lot of the reporters know each other), so be sure to do your homework and shape what you say accordingly.

A good resource that takes a deeper dive into this topic is Tech In Asia’s article which is aptly titled How do I get covered by Tech in Asia? 

Many points in this article cover a lot of basic principles for approaching any tech publication.

How do I know what to say?

For the most part (and I can at least attest on behalf of our portfolio companies) as a founder, you are not in it for the money. You’ve conceptualized an idea, that became a prototype, that is now a product or solution that you truly believe will change the lives of millions. You have a team of 50, 100, 500 that you’re now in charge of that believe in you and the mission of the company.

Also Read: How effective PR can be a game changer for tech startups in 2020?

Tell a story. Show your passion. Demonstrate your expertise in the industry. And why you are the right company to do what you do.

I sat in on an interview last year with the founder of Saleswhale Gabriel Lim and the editor of Campaign Asia to discuss the growth of the company and outlook for the sales and marketing industry.

On one hand, Gabriel could have just spouted off the tech behind Saleswhale or the growing revenues they’re seeing year-on-year, and the fact that they were a recent graduate from the Y Combinator program. But rather, he started the conversation with why he decided to start Saleswhale, the pain point he was seeing between sales and marketing teams at organizations across the board, and why Saleswhale is best positioned to solve this solution and maybe even more importantly, why they are poised to solve this solution today.

Before going into the interview, think about the headline you want, the audience you’re intending to speak to and how do you provide the context and color to the reporter in an interesting and insightful way? When you are able to tell a compelling story to a reporter that is insightful and relevant, you will see it translate into a strong piece. In this situation, the published article led to sales leads for Saleswhale.

How do you be insightful? Often times, it is just about doing your homework and providing interesting nuggets of information including stats, facts or anecdotes throughout the interview.

How should I speak?

It goes without saying, reporters are people too and when you want to work with people, authenticity plays an important role.

“I hope founders or startup executives can provide honest insight, not too PR-y answers or general statements,” said Khamila Mulia of KRAsia.

Khamila cited her recent interview with the founder of Wahyoo as being honest and insightful which translated into this piece.

Where you can and without divulging any trade or business secrets, candidness and authenticity is key to not just a strong interview but a strong impression with the reporter.

“It would be great if founders can speak candidly about challenges as no one’s expecting them to be perfect,” said one tech reporter in Singapore.

At the end of the day, as a founder, you are there to solve a problem and it is okay to talk about the good, the bad and the ugly of the industry that you are trying to solve.

Getting burned and how to work with media

As a final note, there’s always a degree of risk when being open to speaking to reporters. Though keep in mind you take a similar risk when you want to build any relationship — whether it is with a new investor, customer or team member.

I once went to Maxwell’s one evening, ate some cockles, and ended up with severe food poisoning with an IV drip at a public hospital in Singapore. Am I going to stop eating cockles? Am I going to stop going to Maxwell’s? You may say maybe, but I say no!

Ok, it may not be the best analogy for the cockle-haters out there.

The point is, in business, there are instances where you can get burned by a business partner or someone you’ve hired, but that does not mean you stop doing business with other business partners or stop hiring talent.

Also Read: How startups should approach public relations

Similarly, one bad instance with a reporter does not mean they should be shunned or for you to be guarded in an interview.

It would be great if founders have a degree of openness and trust when meeting with reporters,” said a reporter from a first-tier tech trade.

Good reporters value your insight and the relationship. It is important to build a rapport with them and invest time in your relationship and trust with them.

“The best relationships I have with founders/PRs are those that aren’t just transactional. That means that they don’t only call when they have a story to pitch, and likewise, I don’t only contact them when I want something. Keeping in touch has never been easier with messaging apps, and having a relationship with a reporter makes pitching far easier—because often the tricky part is simply getting them [the reporter] to read and respond. Reporters are spread pretty thin across various beats and companies, so they’ll always appreciate someone in an industry who can give them straight opinions or even story tips,” said Jon.

At the same time, do understand a good reporter’s job is to tell a balanced story and there are always two sides of a coin.

“I think the common misconception is startup founders tend to think tech writers are natural evangelists for the ecosystem. All businesses and companies are open to scrutiny,” said Ka Kay.

It probably goes without saying that when a founder invests the time in a media relations and builds a rapport with a reporter, it can pay dividends in supporting the growth of the company as you hire and fundraise.

Are there any other tips for engaging with media for startups? Feel free to share any thoughts or comments on the article.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post. We are discussing inclusivity at work and women all of March. Share your thoughts, tips and best practices on how we can make the startup ecosystem more inclusive, gender and culture diverse.

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page.

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They co-founded HAUZ in March 2018 as a company that specialised in security hardware. But their multiple meetings with clients led to the pivot of the product, precisely a year later.

“When we spoke with our clients in the security industry, we realised that there is a major problem in managing the workforce effectively,” said Co-founder and CMO Shah Fariq Aizal Sha Ghazni.

“Currently, there are no solutions/products to address this problem. We realise that there is a gap in the market for businesses that operate multi-location and remote workforce manually. This prompted us to pivot in March 2019,” added Ghazni, who started the firm, along with Ho Di-Yan (CEO and Wayne Woo (Chief Business Development Officer).

In the current form, HAUZ is an online platform that helps organisations streamline their workforce management process. Its app also allows supervision and remote monitoring of employees.

The app also assists in the assigning and monitoring of work schedules, leave management, and checking on live updates of all sites in real-time.

“We help traditional industries and businesses to manage their large workforce attendance and operation reporting in multi-location around Malaysia and globally with zero proprietary assets. At the same time, we also offer a cloud-based platform with real-time updates that promises business continuity with zero downtime,” Ghazni explained.

Also Read: Once a scam victim, this entrepreneur has built an escrow service to check online shopping fraud in Malaysia

The product also features payroll integration.

Primarily, HAUZ caters to companies, which deal with multi-location and sizeable remote workforce. Its clients come from across industries, including security, recruitments, facility management, construction, retail, cleaning services, F&B and education.

Clients pay a one-time fee of RM800, in addition to RM12 per user/month for a subscription.

Roller-coaster ride

The journey has never been easy, admits Ghazni. “It was never easy to build a team that shares the same values and vision for our clients. It has been a roller coaster ride to get everyone to be in sync with our company’s direction in the early stages. Active communication is key to building a strong team.”

It was not easy to convince and win clients either, as they were not familiar with the whole digitalisation and its benefits.

“However, we are grateful to see our clients took the leap of faith to jump onboard and benefited from it. Our solutions have helped them save up to 40 per cent operation cost, reducing processing time and improving productivity and efficiency,” claimed Ghazni.

Opportunities are massive — many companies in Malaysia are slowly expanding into neighbouring countries. For now, HAUZ targets Malaysian SMEs and associations by conducting workshops and seminars on how to kickstart their digital transformation journey.

“Once we seize a more significant market share in Malaysia, we will move to work with the right partners in expanding our product into other Southeast Asian markets,” he said.

“We are working on our numbers and securing better market share in Malaysia first before proceeding to expansion to other countries and going for future fundraising rounds,” he added.

Also Read: Koh Boon Hwee’s new US$100M VC fund Credence Partners to invest in Series A, B firms in Southeast Asia

Part of NEXEA’s 2019 startup programme, HAUZ has secured a small round of funding the angel network. With this investment, HAUZ was able to reach out to more clients in other industries locally and make improvements to the platform.

Key learnings

Before thinking of being an entrepreneur and coming up with a minimum viable product, Ghazni advises, aspiring founders should learn as much as they can about the industry pain points and be an expert about it. They should also look for a mentor who can answer your questions.

“Always focus on the customer experience using your products. At the end of the day, you want to see the customer transformation journey is a success and grow after subscribing to your product,” Ghazni concluded.

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Finance

Singapore-based cybersecurity firm Right-Hand raises US$1M in seed funding led by Atlas Ventures

Singapore-based cybersecurity firm Right-Hand has announced a USS$1 million seed funding round led by early-stage VC fund Atlas Ventures. Participating in the round are Singapore government’s investment arm SGInnovate and talent investor Entrepreneur First.

The company said that it will use the funding to accelerate its product roadmap development.

Right-Hand offers a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform for companies to monitor, measure, and mitigate human-induced cybersecurity risks. It analyses employee behaviour in real-time, produces user behaviour analytics, and delivers customised and user-friendly micro-learning training modules to educate employees on their risky behaviours.

Singapore’s SPH Ventures joins the US$3M seed round in US-based global influencer marketing community influence.co

The corporate venture arm of Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), SPH Ventures, has joined a US$3 million seed funding round in US-based platform for influencer marketing community influence.co, as reported by DealStreetAsia.

Bonfire Ventures led the investment with participation from ACT Capital, Alumni Ventures Group, and Next 10 Ventures.

influence.co plans to use the funding to scale its community and launch a media division to cover the influencer and creator lifestyle.

influence.co was launched in 2016 by Ryan Angilly, Niel Robertson, and Jeff Smith to connect everyone in the influencer economy through content, community-building, and collaborative commerce.

Finastra’s global fintech hackathon chooses Philippines student team as the winner

Finastra has crowned Team ‘WonderTech’ from the Philippines as the grand prize winner of its global fintech hackathon FusionFabric.cloud.

The Manila-based team was selected among five category winners for its ‘Agree Farm App’ at Finastra Universe New York.

Also Read: 5 key trends in banking for 2020 and beyond

The app aims to connect rural farmers in the Philippines to access to bank loans, built using open APIs on FusionFabric.cloud, Finastra’s open development platform. It was chosen by an audience of senior professionals representing financial institutions.

Team ‘WonderTech’ consists of four young professionals and university students in Manila: Michael Puzon, Vaniza Dagangon, John Robert Tubale, and Clyde Palattao. More than 1,000 individuals, including data scientists, developers, and engineers, from across 38 countries participated in the ‘Hack to the Future’ hackathon.

The complete list of category-winning apps includes:

• Future of Capital Markets: Stratl

• Future of Corporate Banking: Accenture, with IN-CRE-D (Intelligent Credit Decisioning using AI) app

• Future of Payment & Banking for a Better Future: WonderTech, with Agree Farm App

• Future of Retail Banking: ING, with Financial Assistant on FB Messenger app

• Best App by an Established Fintech: Manager.one

Indian teen-targeting payment app FamPay gets US$4.7M in funding from Y Combinator, others

Bangalore-based fintech startup focussing on teens as its main target market, FamPay, announced that it has received a US$4.7 million seed funding round from Y Combinator, Venture Highway, Sequoia India, and Global Founders Capital (GFC).

Also participating in the funding round are angel investors and Twitch cofounder Kevin Lin, Robinhood cofounder Vladimir Tenev, CRED founder Kunal Shah, and Pine Labs CEO Amrish Rau.

With the funding, FamPay said it seeks to expand its engineering team to enhance its technology stack and improve the platform.

According to an article by Inc24, FamPay was founded by recent graduates of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee: Kush Taneja and Sambhav Jain.

Using FamPay, students can get a debit card without the need to set up a bank account. Parents can then top up the FamPay account of their teenage children and supervise their spending.

FamPay has partnered with ICICI Bank to issue the physical card that can be ordered through the app.

Also Read: Trax acquires European image recognition startup Qopius to expand digital retail presence

Business

PropertyGuru launches mortgage marketplace with PropertyGuru Finance, targeting home financing for Singaporeans

Singapore-based property technology company PropertyGuru has announced its expansion into home financing with the launch of its mortgage marketplace PropertyGuru Finance.

The PropertyGuru Consumer Sentiment Study H1 2020 reveals only 18 per cent of Singaporeans are ‘very familiar with the home loan process’. Almost 50 per cent of home buyers are not familiar with the paperwork that is required to apply for a home loan, and two in five Singaporeans are not aware that they can refinance their home loan and save on monthly costs.

The company will offer digital home financing services such as instant in-principle approval, instant offers, refinance checks, to enable property buyers to consume home financing services conveniently, securely and instantly online.

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Shopback raises US$75M led by Temasek to expand in Asia

Singaporean shopping cashback platform Shopback is announcing US$45 million in funding led by Temasek, with participation from Rakuten, EDBI, EV Growth, Cornerstone Ventures, and 33 Capital, according to TechInAsia.

Shopback will use the funds to expand into new markets in Asia and diversify its core cashback service.

The company with 450 staff in total said that its business in Singapore is already profitable in terms of earnings before interest and tax (EBIT).

Also Read: How ShopBack sweetens shopping in Southeast Asia

It is currently operating in seven markets, including Taiwan and Australia.

Grab partners with Wirecard to widen its payment method to more merchants

Ride-hailing giant Grab has announced a partnership with Germany’s Wirecard to extend the acceptance of its payment method to more merchants via Wirecard’s digital financial commerce platform, according to DealStreetAsia.

Users will be able to pay via GrabPay for online and offline transactions, and Wirecard will be processing the transactions.

Georg von Waldenfels, Executive Vice President Group Business Development at Wirecard, said: “Together, we aim to continue disrupting the payment, tech and mobility industries with innovative solutions that can improve the lives of millions.”

Malaysian B2B wholesale marketplace Dropee joins Y Combinator’s latest cohort

Dropee, an all-in-one marketplace platform for retailers, has been accepted into Y Combinator’s Winter 2020 batch, making it the second Malaysian company to be selected.

Prior to this, the company had raised a USD$350,000 seed investment from Vynn Capital and Prasetia Dwidharma, both of which are investment companies for early-stage companies.

Also Read:  Morning News Roundup: Cybersecurity firm Right-Hand raises US$1M in seed funding

Lennise, CEO of Dropee believes that “independent retailers will still have an incomparable edge over large chain retail stores that no other businesses can easily replicate.”

“Mom-and-pop stores are the best when it comes to customer service, and they have been doing so for decades. The way they treat their customers is almost like family, and we want to maintain this tradition by helping them to keep their businesses around many more decades to come,” said Lennise.

Standard Chartered launches ‘banking as a service’

Standard Chartered (SC) today announced that it has launched a new solution, called ‘nexus’, which will allow companies to offer loans, credit cards and savings accounts with the bank to their customers under their own brand name, according to a statement.

SC currently has a partnership with an undisclosed e-commerce platform in Indonesia.

The company has plans to expand into markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East with established digital platforms.

“nexus is potentially transformational for the bank and our customers. We will actively partner with leading consumer platforms in our markets to enable convenient access to financial services to millions of new, tech-savvy customers. We are starting with Indonesia, as part of our strategy to grow digitally and expand our business in this important, fast-growing market,” said Bill Winters, Group Chief Executive of SC.

Property Guru enters the mortgage sector, launches ‘PropertyGuru Finance’

Southeast Asia’s property technology has confirmed its expansion into home finance with the launch of its mortgage marketplace, ‘PropertyGuru Finance’.

Through this initiative, the company aims to provide Singaporeans with a cheaper and smoother experience while financing their home. 

The company will also be offering in-principle approval, instant offers and refinances checks, for property buyers online.

CMO Bjorn Sprengers said that the company wants to target the pain points of the “process of how people will finance their homes”.

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Image Credit: Markus Spiske

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The COVID-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak has resulted in empty shopping malls across Asia, especially in countries such as Singapore, South Korea, and China where the spread of the virus has been even more pronounced.

Except for the initial weeks where consumers wiped out supermarkets of toilet paper, instant noodles, and rice, most are avoiding crowded areas and delaying non-essential purchases and travel across Asia and now globally.

Besides a slow down in business travel, tourism has also been greatly impacted. According to the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), tourist arrivals are expected to drop by 25 to 30 per cent this year due to the COVID-19 virus.

This would indeed have a negative impact towards retail sales, especially for a country that is highly dependent on tourist dollars. Under pressure to reduce rent by retailers, shopping mall owners such as Capitaland will be offering rental relief of 20-30 per cent at the end of March 2020 for affected tenants mainly in the downtown shopping belt.   

In Malaysia, retailers have encouraged shopping malls owners to give them rental rebates of between 30-50 per cent after seeing a decline in sales of up to 50 per cent.  The Department of Tourism in the Philippines announced that the Nationwide Mall Sale will be postponed until further notice. This event was initially scheduled to start on Sunday, March 1, 2020. 

In contrast to the depressing situation which traditional retail is facing, e-commerce has benefited from this episode of the virus outbreak as people are now turning to online grocery platforms to purchase their daily necessities.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Vietnam’s e-commerce startup Leflair accused of owing US$2M to suppliers

In China, for example, Carrefour reported vegetable deliveries growing 600 per cent year-over-year during the Lunar New Year period and JD.com saw an increase of 215 per cent in online shopping grocery sales to 15,000 tons in just the first 10 days of February 2020.

This pattern of behaviour is similar to the impact that SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) had on purchasing behaviour almost two decades ago. SARS spurred the growth of e-commerce and likewise, with the outbreak of COVID-19, it will encourage the rapid movement from traditional store-based selling to digitalisation and retail through omni-channel.

When the deadly SARS outbreak hit China then, it helped accelerate the development of the e-commerce industry in the country. SARS forced JD.com to start selling its products online in 2004 and now it is the largest online retailer in China.

Alibaba also experienced a positive impact as a result of SARS by seizing the opportunity to go C2C with the creation of Taobao as a result of reduced foreign business travellers to the country.

Just like SARS, the presence of COVID-19 will result in consumers moving their purchases online, however, the impact would be even more far-reaching as the COVID-19 spread is more global in nature. So what can retailers and shopping malls do to keep revenues up and remain relevant in these challenging times? 

Retailers go online

According to Esther Ho, Nanyang Polytechnic school of business management director, in a Straits Times article, “Physical store sales will be the most impacted in light of the COVID-19 situation. This may provide the impetus for retailers to seriously consider (going) online, especially if there are success stories to share.”

Also Read: Keep calm and remain communicative: Startup founders share how they cope with coronavirus crisis

Good examples of such success stories include Iuiga and Awfully Chocolate who have reported that their online sales have experienced a surge, even though they have been experiencing a drastic drop in sales at their offline stores in shopping malls due to COVID-19. 

Most notable retailers have begun their foray into e-commerce over the past decade as part of their overall channel strategy either as a branded online store or as parts of an existing online marketplace such as eBay, Amazon, Lazada or Qoo10.

Many more can leverage this consumer behaviour change to drive their digital transformation, ensuring that they remain accessible to their customers even in these hard times. 

What can shopping malls do to remain relevant?

Shopping malls also come under tremendous pressure as a result of the COVID-19 virus. As landlords, making sure that their tenants stay afloat has a direct impact on the bottom line, lesser tenants mean less rent revenue collected. This is especially true if a major component of rent is a percentage of sales generated by the tenant at their store in the mall. However, getting consumers through the door and maintaining the usual footfall traffic at the malls is difficult during this time. 

Retailers have shown the way to cushion the losses in their stores is to move their business online. Shopping Malls can do the same, allowing regular customers to continue shopping at their favourite stores in the malls but as a shopping mall online marketplace.

Online marketplaces are not new and they have seen tremendous growth globally.

Also Read: Coronavirus is driving the world into an economic slump. How to cope up?

In fact, Euromonitor reported that 47 per cent of all digital commerce sales in Asia are made through marketplaces in 2018. Shopping Malls are inherently physical marketplaces themselves, in reality, they are a collection of different vendors in a physical location.

As such, to remain relevant in these hard times, shopping mall owners can create an online version of their shopping malls in the form of a mall branded online marketplace by adding a digital multi-vendor marketplace platform to their current business models.

Pursuing an “offline to online” (O2O) dual strategy would not only add on a new channel of distribution for tenants of the mall but also help cushion sales losses at their physical stores.

Consumers who are loyal and regular visitors to the shopping mall would now be able to avoid catching the virus from crowds and shop at their favourite retailers from the safety and comforts of their own homes. 

The COVID-19 virus spread is, unfortunately, gaining pace around the world with no end in sight. Its sustained impact will cause a fundamental change in consumer behaviour, fuelling the growth of e-commerce and the slow demise of traditional retail.

As the saying goes, “disrupt or be disrupted.” Any retailer or shopping mall owners who do not start embracing online commerce as part of their business strategy may see themselves left behind and soon disappear as their businesses falter.

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Business

Funding for proptech in Southeast Asia holds strong at US$72.9M

Southeast Asia poses the second highest number of deals and undisclosed funding across of Asia Pacific in 2019, showing a strong focus in proptech since 2017, reveals a JLL-TechInAsia study.

This is despite an overall funding decline by 38.4 per cent in Asia Pacific last year after reaching a high of more than US$1 billion in disclosed funding in 2018.

“The demographic in Southeast Asia has favourable elements supporting investment into proptech. This includes a young and growing tech savvy population, urbanization and a growing real estate footprint fuelled by strong economic growth and higher market transparency. We expect investments to continue in the region and play an increasingly influential role in the way real estate is managed and transacted,” said Chris Fossick, CEO, JLL Southeast Asia.

Last year, proptech startups in the region raised US$625.9 million, out of which, Southeast Asia raised a total of US$72.9 million. Out of the 38 total deal counts in 2019, the region accounted for 11 of these deals, clocking in the second highest record of deals as well as funding across of Asia Pacific.

Jordan Kostelac, Director of Proptech, JLL Asia Pacific, explained: “These figures are only indicative of VC interest and they’re less reflective of what’s really happening in our industry. In our work with clients and fellow corporates, we are seeing that interest in proptech in Asia Pacific continues to grow, with traditional players taking a strategic, integrated approach with start-ups instead of the VC investment route.”

Funding

Early-stage VC investor Strive makes the final close of its third fund at over US$100M

Early-stage VC fund Strive (formerly known as Gree Ventures) has announced the closing of its third Asia fund at more than US$100 million.

The fund was launched in April 2019 and it’s being deployed into seed-stage opportunities in the B2B sector across Southeast Asia, India, and Japan, as reported by Tech In Asia.

Also Read: GREE Ventures rebrands to STRIVE, announces $130M

The new fund includes investors such as returning limited partners and government-backed SME Support Japan, social media company Gree, and Mizuho Financial Group members Mizuho Bank and Mizuho Capital.

The fund was first announced with US$130 million raised in May 2019 and was already being invested into edutech startup ClassPlus and Tokyo-based application programming interface for know-your-customer services, TrustDock.

With its third fund, the firm said it has also co-invested with other leading VCs such as Sequoia Capital, Monk’s Hill Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, and Accel Partners, so it can establish itself as a cross-border Asian fund with a presence in India, Southeast Asia, and Japan. Recently, Strive promoted Nikhil Kapur, who led the third fund invested into a dozen investments for four years, as a partner.

Social fans club platform Superfanz raises seed funding led by NXT Ventures

Superfanz, Asia-based social fan club platform for creators (KOL, Influencers, YouTubers, and similar), announced today that it has raised a seven-figure seed round of funding led by NXT Ventures after launching its platform.

According to an article by Asia One, the investment follows a six-figure angel round with a prominent investor and tech entrepreneur in July 2019.

Superfanz seeks to address the pain point in which over 90 per cent of the creators do not earn enough money from their social media accounts to make a living.

The startup launched its Android app at the end of last year and is officially soft-launching a Pan-Asian fan club platform for creators and special interest groups this year across Thailand, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

People

LinkAja CEO resigns to join MD of Good Doctor Indonesia

Danu Wicaksana, CEO of Indonesian e-wallet provider LinkAja has left the company to join healthtech company Good Doctor Technology Indonesia as its Managing Director. He will oversee the operation of Good Doctor Technology via Grab’s in-app health channel Grabhealth.

Wicaksana updated its personal LinkedIn profile to confirm the move that has taken place since February, as reported by TechInAsia.

Also Read: Together with Ping An, GrabHealth starts to show its teeth in Indonesia

Wicaksana has been CEO of LinkAja for three years, since it was still using the TCash brand, owned by Telkomsel). LinkAja itself is a product of several government-owned e-wallets that merged into one.

Good Doctor Technology that welcomes Wicaksana is a healthtech company formed by Grab and China-grown O2O healthcare Ping An Good Doctor.

Global investment firm KKR welcomes Chee-Wei Wong as Asia’s Head of Global Impact

KKR, a global investment firm, has announced the expansion of KKR’s Global Impact team by appointing Chee-Wei Wong as Head of Global Impact for Asia.

In the role, Wong, based in Singapore, is responsible for sourcing investment opportunities and supporting impact-related portfolio companies across Asia Pacific. Wong will also serve as a member of the firm’s Global Impact Investment Committee.

Prior to joining KKR, Wong was a MD at Tailwind Capital in New York and spent nine years at EQT in New York and Singapore, where he was an investor and board member of sustainability-focused technology enterprises and healthcare companies. Before that, he was a consultant at Bain & Company and a Justices’ Law Clerk in the Supreme Court of Singapore.

Focussing on identifying and investing behind global opportunities where financial performance and societal impact are intrinsically aligned, the firm’s business specifically lays eyes on companies whose core business models provide commercial solutions that contribute measurable progress toward one or more of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

The addition of Wong follows KKR Global Impact’s recent international expansion with the appointments of Stanislas de Joussineau as Head of Global Impact for Europe and Sharon Yang as a senior investor for KKR Global Impact in Asia.
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Picture Credit: Strive

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Sales automation firm Novocall lands US$500K from 500 Durians, others

Novocall, a Singaporean startup that automates sales processes for agents, has raised US$500,000 in a round led by 500 Durians, the Southeast Asia-focussed fund of 500 Startups.

Other participants in this round include 500 Startups Thailand, Expara Asia Ventures, and Exabytes founder and CEO Chan Kee Siak.

The funding will be used to support the company’s expansion plan, according to a press statement. While Novocall already has clients in Singapore and Malaysia, it is looking forward to expanding to Indonesia and Thailand.

The B2B SaaS platform claimed that its services are currently used by over 2,000 businesses across 42 countries, more popularly among small- and medium-sized enterprises in the education and travel sectors.

Honestbee slashes a big chunk of its staff yet again

Singaporean delivery startup Honestbee is laying off around 100 employees which make 80 per cent of its workforce, according to a Deal Street Asia report. The exact number of layoff remains undisclosed.

Also Read: honestbee to get US$7M to repay its creditors: Report

“Due to several external commercial pressures that have resulted in the closure of habitat by Honestbee, the company has made the strategic decision to reduce its staff force. As a result, the company has decided to reduce its non-core staff as it does not foresee operating habitat in its full strength over the next few weeks,” said an Honestbee spokesperson.

Honestbee’s court hearing on restructuring itself will be held on March 26.

Singaporean healthcare venture fund invests in lung cancer detection company Breath Diagnostics

Breath Diagnostics announced today that it has raised a “significant” amount of capital from Singaporean healthcare venture fund HealthXCapital, according to a press statement.

The two organisations plan to collaborate to pursue pan-Asian investment, conduct clinical studies, and execute market penetration strategies across the US and Asia.

“Despite the region’s dramatic growth in recent decades, cancer screening in Asia is still a challenge thus exposing the vast majority of the population to cancer risks,” said Seemant Jauhari, Partner at HealthXCapital.

Revolut introduces new countries for currency transfer across Southeast Asia

Revolut will be launching new and direct remittance routes to major countries across Southeast Asia, including India, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, according to the company statement. The exact date of the launch has not been confirmed yet, and the feature will be available for all cards.

The fintech company will also be offering other perks like one per cent cashback in 28 currencies, on domestic and international transactions, however, this will only be available for metal card users.

Also Read: Following its recent debut in Singapore, Revolut launches Metal Visa card in the market

“Since Revolut launched in Singapore in October 2019, we have understood this nation’s rich cultural and demographic mix, making cross-border transfers one of the most valuable features to our customers. We’ve only just begun – these new routes demonstrate our commitment to put our customers first and indicate our next steps towards breaking down financial borders,” said Eddie Lee, APAC Regional Director of Operations at Revolut.

India’s Unbox Robotics secures US$500K to bring parcel sorting solutions for logistics providers

Bangalore-based startup Unbox Robotics has raised US$500,000 from Arali Ventures & CIIE.CO, The Innovation Continuum at IIM (Indian Institute of Management) Ahmedabad today, according to a press statement.

Founded by ex-Flipkart employee Pramod Ghadge the business aims to eliminate the inefficiencies in current warehouse automation solutions like space utilisation, installation time, and capital involved.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Proptech investments in Southeast Asia grew to US$72.9M in 2019, says study

“The leading e-commerce players across the globe compete to draw in demanding customers with same-day deliveries, discounts, and simplified returns. Warehouse efficiency and lowered costs could prove to be key enablers for the growth of robotics and AI in the logistics sector. Unbox’s space-efficient robots and AI software will make the warehouse powerful and smaller, bringing them closer to customers to offer faster deliveries,” said Vipul Patel, Partner – Seed Investing at CIIE.CO.

Trax closes retail service platform Survey acquisition

Singapore-based retail tech unicorn Trax announced that it has acquired mobile data collection technology for retail, Survey.com at an undisclosed amount according to Tech in Asia.

The startup has made acquisitions all across China, Europe, and North America with Paris based Qopiuss being the most recent one.

Trax aims to create a “closed-loop merchandising system for physical retail,” according to a statement. With the acquisition, the company targets wider reach across CPG (consumer package goods) brands

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Image Credit: Novocall

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Manila-based accelerator programme IdeaSpace announced today the launch of Opportunity Fund, which aims to invest in startups within and outside of the company’s portfolio.

According to a press statement, the fund aims to cater to early-stage to pre-Series A startups, particularly founders who may be looking for funding to help make key business and strategic decisions.

The size of the fund was undisclosed.

IdeaSpace further explained about its PHP1 million (US$20,000) investment into Coins.ph. When the startup was acquired by Indonesian ride-hailing giant gojek in January 2019, IdeaSpace said that they netted a five-times return.

The accelerator has since invested in companies such as 1Export, Experience Philippines, Cocotel, Airship, TimeFree Innovations, and to startups outside of the IdeaSpace network such as Acudeen and Qwikwire.

Also Read: Philippines’ IdeaSpace preps for ASEAN integration

“Our initial investment in Coins.ph showed us that there is another way for us to potentially support startups in their entrepreneurial journey,” noted IdeaSpace Executive Director Diane Eustaquio.

“Not all founders go into our acceleration programme and there’s still a lot of talent and leadership potential in the ecosystem. The Opportunity Fund is a way for us to support those founders and through our investment, show them that they’re on the right track,” she continued.

e27 has reached out to IdeaSpace to find out more details about their plan with the fund.

As a non-profit organisation, IdeaSpace has mentored and supported 91 startups under its incubation and acceleration programme. It has invested over PHP200 million (US$3.9 million) worth of support into the Philippine startup ecosystem.

IdeaSpace is supported by First Pacific, First Pacific Leadership Academy, Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC), Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC), Metro Pacific Hospital, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), Meralco, Smart Communications, Inc (Smart), Indofood, Philex Mining, Maynilad, and TV5.

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Image Credit: Yannes Kiefer on Unsplash

 

 

 

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Singapore-based Credence Partners has announced the launch of its first venture capital fund and has made the first close at US$50 million.

The VC firm targets the final close at US$100 million.

Credence will invest mainly in Series A and B companies in Southeast Asia. It looks to invest in defensible businesses solving real problems, led by robust and thoughtful founders leading high-performing teams.

The fund has a preference for investing in the enterprise, B2B and B2B2C business models in industries such as fintech, deeptech, consumer, logistics & mobility and tech-enabled businesses.

Also Read: IdeaSpace launches new fund for early-stage startups in the Philippines

Founded in 2006 by Koh Boon Hwee, Tan Chow Boon and Seow Kiat Wang, Credence believes in building portfolio value by applying a private equity mindset to early-stage companies.

“Applying the PE mindset means we will guide and focus the startups on leadership and talent management, on operational fundamentals, with a strong focus on building out commercialisation and business development growth engines,” said Chairman Hwee.

Since its first close, the fund has committed to three investments — a deeptech software company that identifies and quantifies cognitive states wirelessly, a pure-play digital bank, and a mobile-only micro-lending company.

Hwee is a well-known figure in the tech and startup ecosystem in Singapore. As per Crunchbase, he has so far made 28 investments in his personal capacity in companies, including Zookal, Igloohome, Solarhome, Shohos and Square Yards. He also has two exits to his name — Pie and CombineSell.

In the past, he has held key positions in SingTel, Singapore Airlines, DBS Bank, and Temasek, among many others.

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